Hello there, my name is Richard McMunn from the interview training company PassMyInterview.com,
and in this tutorial, I will teach you how to pass a SCRUM MASTER INTERVIEW. So, it does
not matter which organization or company you are being interviewed for, for the position
of Scrum Master, please do make sure you tune in and watch this video from beginning through
to the end, because it will make a huge difference to your preparation. Not only am I going to
give you a number of scrum master interview questions that are pretty much guaranteed
to come up during your interview, but I will also give you some top scoring suggested answers
to make sure you are the stand out candidate! Now, before I do that, a very warm welcome
to the scrum master interview training tutorial. My name is Richard McMunn. That's me there
in the center of the screen. I am a former fire officer of 17 years, and since then,
I've been helping people for about 20 years now to pass their interviews, and I do that
primarily by giving you top scoring, unique and concise answers that you can't find anywhere
else on the Internet. Please do make sure you SUBSCRIBE to the channel by clicking the
red button below the video, and then you are not going to miss out on any of the weekly
insider interview training videos I'm uploading. I would also very much appreciate your support
if you gave the video a LIKE (thanks!) that always motivates me to create more content
for you. Thank you very much indeed. Okay. Let's get into those scrum master interview
questions and answers. Now, you can either take notes as I progress, or if you want to
wait, I will tell you at some stage during this video where you can download my full
set of 20 Scrum Master Interview Questions and Answers. So, the first question that I
want you to prepare for during your scrum master interview is: Tell me about yourself
and why you want to work in this role as our scrum master? As you and I know, being a scrum
master requires a unique set of skills, qualities and attributes. So we want to start off and
give the hiring manager a brilliant, positive answer that demonstrates you are capable of
performing the role to a competent high level. Here we go. “I want to work in the role
of Scrum Master because the essential skills, qualities and attributes needed to perform
successfully are the ones I possess. Over the years, the experiences I have gained have
enabled me to be effective as a scrum master. I am extremely driven, supportive, adaptable
and I hold excellent problem-solving capabilities that enable me to facilitate and lead a team
towards its goals. I always develop and maintain excellent working relationships with the teams
I am working with, I know what level of influence to exert on a team, and I also possess a relentless
pursuit of continuous improvement and development with all teams I am the scrum master for.
I understand, from your perspective, this is a difficult role to fill, but based on
my past experiences, my passion for the role and my excellent interpersonal and communication
skills, I feel strongly you will be impressed with my work ethics, integrity, values and,
more importantly, the results I will produce as your scrum master.” That is a rock solid,
positive answer! It is in depth, but I prefer in depth answers, and based on the fact that
lots and lots of people are passing their interviews after watching my videos, this
is the method I want you to follow. Now, of course, you can either repeat that word for
word if it is a match for what you believe in and your skills, or you can take notes
of the elements of that response that you think are most suited to you personally and
professionally. Second question of your scrum master interview: Why should we hire you as
our scrum master? So, why should we hire you? This is another interview question for “What
makes you the standout candidate?” Here is my suggested answer: “I believe you should
hire me because I have the past experiences and qualities to deliver consistent results
for you. As the scrum master, I will help the team reach agreement on all tasks, projects
and deadlines, conduct productive and progressive daily scrum meetings, and also keep everyone
focused on what we have all agreed during our meetings. I will also ensure I effectively
remove any obstacles and barriers the team faces along the way. I am someone who always
acts with honesty and integrity, and you have my word that I will work extremely hard to
deliver the results I am responsible and accountable for as the scrum master.” Another great
response! By the way, if you are LinkedIn.com and you want to connect with me, I have put
my linked in connection in the description below the video, so you can connect and just
say hello if you want to. Question number three of your scrum master interview: In your
opinion, what is a successful scrum master? This is assessing your understanding of the
job description and more importantly, the person specification. Here is my answer: “I
believe a successful scrum master is someone who can meet the objectives that are defined
by their employer – which in this case, is you.
A successful scrum master is also someone who has a clear understanding and grasp of
both leadership and facilitation. As a scrum master, you need to know when to lead situations,
and also when to simply facilitate the team to help them achieve their goals. A successful
scrum master is also someone who can help a team reach its full potential by both encouraging
and enabling its members. To be successful, you need breadth of knowledge in respect of
the product you are helping the team develop, and also the market within which that product
falls in. Finally, you need to be a strong relationship builder and influencer.” So,
another stronger answer. And you will notice, even though we're only, I think, three questions
in to our scrum master preparation, you'll notice that a lot of my responses are literally
loaded with positive key words and phrases. And I believe that's important, because they
will resonate positively with the interviewer and it helps you to be the standout candidate.
Question number four: Tell us about an issue you had with a stakeholder and what you did
to resolve it? Now, this doesn't necessarily have to be in a role as a previous scrum master.
You could have worked in a different role as perhaps a project manager, or project coordinator.
The important thing is, what they are assessing here is your ability to resolve situations
and take responsibility for them. Taking ownership of situations is a unique skill that not many
people have. But it is vital if you are to be an effective leader or scrum master. Here
is my suggested answer to the interview question: Tell us about an issue you had with a stakeholder
and what you did to resolve it in a previous role? “In a previous role I was responsible
for facilitating the completion of a time-sensitive project. The project was progressing extremely
well. However, as time went on, one particular stakeholder was starting to stall on the delivery
of their part of the project specification. It was my job, as the project facilitator,
to speak to the stakeholder in order to find out why there was a delay, and more importantly,
what we could do to speed things up to ensure the project completed successfully. Despite
trying to make contact with the stakeholder, they would not return my calls, and so I decided
to jump on the train and make my way to their offices. When I arrived, it was clear they
did not share the same enthusiasm for the project as me, and their CEO adopted an entirely
defensive attitude. He had effectively under quoted for the work, and as a result, they
were operating at a loss for this particular project. I explained in very clear terms how
their inaction was going to impact massively on not just everyone who had a vested interest
in the project, but also the end user, which in this case was a local hospital. I used
effective negotiation and persuasion techniques to explain how any failure with the project
could impact negatively on their company from a local media perspective, and that it was
imperative they delivered on their promises. The CEO eventually came around to my way of
thinking and he promised to deliver their side of the project on time. From that day
on, I kept in regular contact with the CEO to make sure he kept to his word, which he
did do. The project was finally completed on time and to the required specification.”
Now, if you just quickly look at how I have structured the answer, I have used a common
technique, an effective technique, called the star technique. You start off and you
tell them the SITUATION you were in. You then explain the TASK that needed to be done. And
then the bulk of the answer is the ACTION that you took. And then finally you finish
off with the RESULT of your actions. And in that response, you'll see that I've used a
short story that explains how I took ownership of the situation, and I also used effective
persuasion and negotiation techniques to get somebody to complete their side of the project,
which everybody was dependent upon. Next question of your scrum master interview: Tell me how
you would facilitate a daily scrum meeting? As you and I know, as a scrum master, you
will need to hold daily scrum meetings. What would you do during your scrum meeting? Here
is my suggested answer: “The daily scrum meeting is absolutely vital in ensuring the
team is focused on what they need to achieve. It is also vital in providing me with information
and details on what it is, if anything, that is preventing the team from achieving its
objectives. On that basis, I would ask three very specific questions during the team scrum
meeting. The questions I would ask are: what the team had achieved the previous day; what
they were planning to achieve on that particular day, and also what was preventing them for
achieving their objectives. To summarize, I would use the daily scrum meetings to focus
the team and use my expertise and experience to influence and facilitate them towards the
goal.” A really strong answer! Next interview question: How would you deal with discord
or conflict in a team? So again, this doesn't have to necessarily be a situation as a scrum
master. You might have been in a previous role where you took ownership and dealt with
discord or conflict within a team. So, we've already tackled the question about dealing
with an external stakeholder. But what happens within a team? How do we resolve this, or
facilitate it? Here is my suggested answer: “I believe there are five important steps
to follow when resolving or facilitating the resolution of conflict in a team. The FIRST
STEP is to identify the main cause of the issue. If you don’t know the exact reasons
for the problem, then you cannot resolve it. STEP TWO would be to hold discussions, most
probably during the daily scrum meetings, to openly talk about the discord and what
the team could do to resolve it. STEP THREE would be to explore different ways the team
could resolve the discord or conflict. It would be important at this stage to listen
to both sides, understand the issues and look to stop it as soon as possible by ensuring
everyone cooperated with the proposed resolution. STEP FOUR would be the agreement of a definitive
way forward for the team, whilst STEP FIVE would be to regularly revisit the progress
the team was making through open discussions during the daily scrum meetings.” And what
I particularly like about that response is that you are following a number of steps,
which in this case is five, to achieving your objectives of resolving discord or conflict.
That demonstrates to the interviewer that you know exactly what to do, and you already
have experience in this situation and you have a process that you would follow that
is tried and tested and that it works! Next question of your scrum master interview, which
is guaranteed to come up: What are your strengths and what are your weaknesses? Now, this might
be divided in two questions, but I've put it into one. So, what are your strengths and
what are your weaknesses? Now, you will notice in this answer, I give a number of strengths,
but I only give ONE weakness. But the important thing when giving a weakness during any interview,
is to make sure that that weakness does not harm your chances of success. So, if you were
to say during a scrum master interview: “You know, I don't feel very confident, or I'm
not very good at facilitating.” Then you won't be getting the job! So make sure the
weakness that you give is obviously honest and genuine, but that is one that will not
damage your chances of successfully passing the interview. Here is my suggested answer:
“I have numerous strengths that I feel will enable me to excel in the role of a scrum
master. These include, my ability to deliver consistent proven results for my employer,
exceptional influencing and facilitating skills, and also strong interpersonal and relationship
building capabilities. In respect of my weakness, I sometimes find it difficult to strike a
healthy work/life balance. In the past, I have literally been working 16-18 hour days
during some difficult and complex projects whilst being scrum master, and obviously this
can be unhealthy if you maintain this level of work. Having said that, as the years go
by, I am becoming a smarter and more intelligent scrum master whilst still being passionate
and fully committed to the role.” While you are giving a weakness, you are also saying
that, you know, I am looking to improve and develop, which as you and I know, is an important
aspect of being a scrum master. But you'll notice that that weakness is actually quite
intelligent in some ways. And that has been one of my own personal weaknesses in the past,
where I've worked so hard, you know, because you're so committed, that it can be unhealthy.
But from an employer's perspective, that would be music to their ears that you are prepared
to work long hours. If you would like my full set of 20 great answers to your SCRUM MASTER
interview, there's a link that has appeared in the top-right hand corner of this video.
If you click it, it'll take you through to my website… PassMyInterview.com, which I
founded a few years ago, and it's designed to get as many people as possible to pass
their interviews, and we are having a huge amount of success with it. I've included all
of those, I think these seven answers that I've given you there, but you'll get another
13 top scoring answers to help you prepare for your scrum master interview! I hope you
enjoyed that. Please don't forget to SUBSCRIBE. I very much appreciate your support within
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for passing your scrum master interview. I hope you have a brilliant day. Thank you very
much.